PM: Deal With Iran on Nukes is 'Impossible'

Any long-term deal with Iran on its nuclear program is doomed to failure, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Sunday

By David Lev

First Publish: 1/26/2014, 8:05 PM

Netanyahu at the World Economic Forum in Davos

Flash 90

Any long-term deal with Iran on its nuclear program is doomed to failure, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Sunday. Speaking at the weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said that such deals with Iran “just won't work.”

Netanyahu was speaking upon his return from the Davos World Economic Forum, where Iranian leader Hassan Rouhani gave several conciliatory speeches and interviews insisting that Iran's intentions were peaceful, and that he was more than willing to cooperate with Western powers on developing a way for Iran to build a nuclear energy program without building a nuclear weapon. Speaking last Wednesday, Rouhani said that “we have to transform animosities (with the U.S.) into friendship."

"This effort is necessary to create confidence on both sides. Iran is in fact stretching out its hand in peace and friendship to all countries of the world and wants friendly, good relations with all countries in the world,” Rouhani said, according to Reuters.

Don't believe it, Netanyahu said Sunday. During his speeches and interviews at Davos, the Prome Minister said, “Rouhani said he favored recognition of all countries of the Middle East, but he refused questions that referred to recognizing the State of Israel. In his speech he said not only said that Iran will not dismantle (its centrifuges), but would not dismantle even one centrifuge. The meaning of this statement, if Iran stands by it,” Netanyahu added, “is that there is no agreement with Iran that can work.”